Communiquer et collaborer en mathématiques et en anglais

One of the main objectives was to enable the French and Irish pupils to develop their linguistic and cultural skills in the host country. Immersion in the families of their pen pals enabled the pu...

One of the main objectives was to enable the French and Irish pupils to develop their linguistic and cultural skills in the host country. Immersion in the families of their pen pals enabled the pupils to learn about life in another country, its customs and practices, and to develop their communication skills, particularly oral communication in the target language, by playing down the need to speak in everyday situations, for example. The aim was also to develop the pupils' STEM skills through the collaborative design and implementation of a mathematical escape game in English and French. As the French pupils involved in the project (enrolled in the European DNL maths section) were mainly girls, the aim was also to encourage girls' access to scientific questions and activities. From the Irish point of view, it was also a question of highlighting the study of French in an original and fun way in order to promote the study of this subject (considered difficult) in a lycée where the recruitment of pupils can sometimes be problematic.

The main activities were the two visits organised for the students to France and Ireland. Each student spent 10 days with his or her pen pal and shared the life of the host family. The central educational activity of these visits was the design of a mathematical escape game. Several work sessions were organised in Ireland and France, during which the participants exchanged ideas and worked together in English and French to design their escape game, creating a scenario and puzzles in groups before finalising the game and its development together. Finally, the second crucial moment in this project was when the pupils from another Year 11 class were able to play the game designed by their classmates. What's more, during these visits, the students were able to take part in a professional escape game so that they could fully appreciate how it works and the pitfalls to be avoided in its finalisation and implementation. Finally, the participants took part in cultural visits during which they were able to discover emblematic or major local heritage sites.

The concrete achievements of our project were the design of the escape game by the students in our 'euro' group and the participation in the game by other students from the lycée. But, of course, we can't stop there. It is the whole implementation of the project that is at the heart of our project. The exchanges between the pupils (in English and French), the construction of the game and all the activities surrounding it have helped to develop a wide range of skills, and the impact has been tangible. Strong bonds of friendship have also been forged and several pupils will be meeting up again during the summer (sometimes in Ireland and sometimes in France) under the responsibility of their families, proof that the seeds we sowed have already germinated and there will be spin-offs far beyond the project itself.